Did you ever Regret Selling a doll?/Seller Guilt

I regretted selling my ResinSoul Mi. The story her character came from just kind of fizzled out and I lost interest and sold her a couple of years ago. Then, a few months back, I realized how much I missed her and rebought her! Not the exact same doll, but same sculpt/body again. I was lucky that I still could.

Another is a bit different. My second doll was a Dollzone Mo and I adored him, though when I decided I preferred SD, I upgraded him and sold the MSD version. Now, I regret it. I still have my first doll, who was his best friend and is also MSD, and I'd love to have them together. Unfortunately, Mo is discontinued now and finding one with the body he had, in his color, with no damage or mods would be nearly impossible. And even if I did find one, would he really feel like my Mo? Or just a copy?

 

I know all about selling a doll to cover needed expenses, but the fact that your mom passed away makes the sale truly heartbreaking; I'm really sorry that you have to endure that level of regret. Mine is not nearly so emotional, so I feel kind of silly for even saying it, but my furnace broke down and needed to be replaced, so I sold my Iplehouse Leonard, which is by far one of my all time favorite sculpts. He's not a rare doll per se, and I can easily get hold of another - but he was from the original Carved Heritage release, and had a beautifully cast, dragonish tattoo on his arm. It was a limited edition and no longer available, so yeah...I really regret being forced by circumstance to let him go.

I know it's been awhile, but my deepest sympathy on the loss of your mother. Mine has been gone for twenty years, and I still miss her very much.

 

Yeah I’ve had regret as well I think some part of me always wants to own big sd dolls but everytime they are let go because I feel guilty not holding them and loving them constantly like my smaller dolls. I don’t have huge regret for a doll I sold at the moment but I’m worried that a doll I may sell will be a regret for me. However like I was mentioning he is like 75 cm and I don’t imagine doing anything more with him I find him lovely as he is and probably wouldn’t give him any more clothing besides what he has on. I really think he is gorgeous but that money would fix my mistakes and allow me to get another smaller doll perhaps. It’s just hard to decide how much I’ll regret it.

 

I sold my mnf Ryeon head over ten years ago. And I still regret it. I was still a newish owner at the time that I couldn't see restyling and renaming as a choice. I thought, well, my character isn't really working out and I want a character I can bond with. So I sold that head and used the funds toward getting two SDs at the time. I haven't sold a doll since then. Not even the old lati yellow body I have. I tried to sell my sleeping chloe, but I felt so much anxiety over it that I took the thread down.

 

I’ve only owned one doll before my Dollzone. Annnd that was the one I sold. To make it worse, I kind of had no choice but to sell him.

I got my KDF An in 2010 and had him for barely any time at all before I was forced to join the army. I gave him to a friend for safekeeping until I came back, because I had literally no way of knowing when that was.

Well, turns out I’m not cut out for it and I failed out of Basic. When I came back and tried to get my doll, I found that in three months, my friend had wrecked him. He was chipped, his makeup was scratched, he had a broken finger... and because he had red hair, red eyes and black nail polish, she kept fawning and saying he would look great as some character from Naruto. By that point I needed money to move out and it broke my heart seeing my doll in this state - and I wasn’t going to be able to fix him with my means. So I said okay, buy him off me. I spent $700 on him total so I asked for three and she agreed.

It still took me two years and having to go to her parents to get my money. She turned out to be a pretty crappy friend. I haven’t seen the doll since. Which is why I was out of the hobby for so long.

 

Thats a tough situation, and I really feel for you. I've never sold a doll but I have had my possessions sold, and my fiance sold a lot of his Charmed memorabilia when he was a broke college student and to this day he'll have moments where he reminisces about having it.

I hope that one day you're able to reclaim that doll and, even if its not "exactly the same doll", to reconnect with those moments with your mom. My father passed away a few years after I moved and I still have the last gift he bought me - a LA scenic t-shirt thats too small and I would never wear - just because it was the last gift I got from him. It has no monetary value, and it just sits in my closet, but even so it's still a piece of connection.

 

I don’t have seller’s remorse often, but I have a couple sculpts I really wish I never sold, the first being my soom vesuvia scorpion body in bronze which is exactly what I need for a character now, but I sold her in 2017. So that isn’t ideal. And I had this iplehouse Carina, who I sold because of my ex—we changed the storyline, but I’d always liked her—and I’d love to have her back. Faceup and all (which... isn’t going to happen, but I can dream)

Dorm Doll Photos by demon.chameleon, on Flickr

this was from back in my university residence days. Neither character exists anymore, and honestly, I’d love to reshell both. My Carina, I think I’d want exactly the same face/aesthetic I had, and her gf, I’d love to do the same aesthetic on a different body/head combo. There are so many small girl bodies I want right now anyway...

 

At my height of collecting I had 15 dolls, and I sold nearly all of them (and their clothes and wigs) for rent money over the course of a year when I was in a tough spot.

Even though I wouldn't want MSDs again, I do miss my Narae and my MNF Shiwoo (both the sleeping one and modded vampire elf one) sometimes. My CP El had a lot of character, as well. I can never reshell him because that El was too iconic to me.

 

I have been fortunate enough to not regret selling any of the dolls I've moved on yet. However, I'm also very fortunate in that I've never been in dire enough straights that selling my collection was a necessity for survival, so all of my dolls have left me on my own terms based purely on my enjoyment of them (or lack thereof). I can very easily tell which dolls would crush me to sell if I was pushed into it by circumstance, though!

That said, I do occasionally miss the character I made for my first doll (a Luts Kid Delf that I gifted to a friend). Not necessarily the doll itself, but the "personality" I had given her at the time. I've toyed with the idea of reshelling her a few times, but I never seem to get around to actually doing it instead of planning it out. I think maybe we were just meant to part ways, and that's okay.

 

I've sold quite a few dolls, but I really only regret selling one of them. I used to have a full set Volks Isao Nanjo, I never really did anything with him since I felt I didn't have to. I was sort of in a weird funk with the hobby at the time, I'm an artist and I felt like if I wasn't customizing/painting every one of my dolls myself then I was doing it wrong. I thought that selling him would help me out with finishing my other dolls that had a bit more of my attention, but I actually ended up selling a good chunk of those other dolls (with no regrets) and took a break from the hobby all together.

I eventually did get over the whole customizing everything myself thing, but I still think about him quite often!

 

I miss my Souldoll Aehael. ^^;
I sold her body since I wasn't a big fan of it, but I really regret selling her head - she was a partial christmas present from my parents (I paid half, they paid half) but I wanted to switch up my collection and, being a student, my hobby sort of "funded" itself so... yeah. I really wish I could buy that specific head back. I still have my parents so it's not like they're gone or anything, thank god, but it'll probably be the only bjd I will get from them and I didn't really consider that when I sold her, and my collection didn't change as dramatically as I had initially anticipated.

 

Came looking for this thread because I'm in the process of selling my first two BJDs I ever purchased, and I haz much sads.

Even though they are common dolls. Even though it will be pretty straightforward to replace them. I am still sad. Who knew grieving dolls was a thing? I didn't.

I'm going to miss them.

I'm going to go to the "if you had a chance to start over" threads next - because essentially, I will be starting over from scratch. These are the only two DOA approved BJDs I own, so... right now, I am sans BJD. It feels weird being here without a doll of my own.

 

I regret selling nearly every doll I've sold, so it will be a big deal for me to consider selling one again. My only unregretted sale was my DC Ada. She was as cute as a button, but she helped me realise that I only want to own human or humanoid dolls. I can appreciate the more complex and anthro dolls, but I really just like enjoying photos of those belonging to other people.

 

Seeing this thread cement my decision to never sell a head if I can help it. Bodies can be replaced, even if they cost a lot, but heads can be pretty emotional. I am sorry to read all of your regret stories and hope you can either find solace or a replacement.

 

I've sold several dolls in the past and so far I've only regretted selling my Volks FCS SD16 F-58. She was the perfect embodiment of one of my characters but at the time I was feeling overwhelmed with my collection (I think that I had 5 dolls at that time?) and really wanted to downsize.

But as of right now, I've pre-ordered a SDGr girl from Volks (which is roughly the same size as the SD16) and I'm actually happy that I've sold the SD16 one. Otherwise I wouldn't have the space for the new SDGr girl!
So I think that feeling regret over selling a doll can change over time, just like it happened to me

 

Yes yes so much regret.

I sold all my limited edition dolls to pay for my dog’s surgery one year. I’m glad my pup is okay, but in retrospect it would have been better to take out a small loan instead of getting rid of everything. I’ll always miss my first doll. Also from a financial aspect because the limited edition dolls are hard to get and worth a lot more.